Mom Watches Helplessly as Bawling Son, 5, Gets Paddled by Principal

An elementary school's decision to paddle a student has raised more than just a few eyebrows.

Shana Marie Perez, of Covington, Ga., posted two videos showing the principal at Jasper Primary School preparing to paddle her five-year-old son, claiming officials said that he would be suspended and she'd go to jail if she tried to do something.

The video shows the clearly distraught boy begging for help, although we never see footage of him actually being hit. Perez, meanwhile, made the videos under the guise that she was texting.

The school district, which does allow corporal punishment, would not comment on the matter.

The issue at hand is not as simple as it may seem, though. According to WXIA:

She has been in a long-running dispute with the principal over her son’s attendance this year. She says he’s been out sick with a medical problem for a total of 18 days, so far this school year. But she says the school had her arrested for truancy, accusing her of not having her son in school....According to Perez, the principal told her that if Perez tried to intervene, her son would be suspended, and Perez feared that if her son missed another day of school her bond would be revoked and she would have to go back to jail, miss work, and be unable to care for her children."

Since paddling is legal in Georgia, the staff will not face any charges.

Perez says she signed paperwork in the beginning of the school year stating she would not allow officials there to paddle her son. It's unclear if the principal was paddling the boy because of all the absences or because of some other incident.